


Recruiter

by tambrathegreat



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Underworld (Movies)
Genre: Challenge Response, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-05
Updated: 2012-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-09 05:09:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/451670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tambrathegreat/pseuds/tambrathegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selene is sent by Kraven to look into the appearance of a new form of Lycan and the mortal pet that accompanies it.  She finds a new recruit.  </p>
<p>This story is a response to a challenge of the Muffliato Group on Facebook. I didn't make the deadline, but they graciously allowed me to post it anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recruiter

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or the Underworld movies. I make no profit from this story.

Selene entered the new, cavernous research facility feeling decidedly uneasy in an environment that seemed both foreign and antiseptic. She was a Death Dealer, not a scientist, not one of Kraven's protégés who were vampires made for their minds and dubious skill-sets. Twisted, the lot of them, in Selene's opinion. She preferred the heat of honest battle to the cold, arid world of torture in which they thrived.

She came to the first airlock, guarded by both biometric locks and a large, steely-eyed guard with equally steely guns. He nodded sharply to her as she placed her index finger on the pad to be scanned. Apparently, he had been warned about her deadly accuracy with the many weapons on which she had trained as well as her willingness to employ them.

The blue light ran up the screen, mapping her fingerprint, and the door slid open with a hiss of ozone-laden air. Selene stepped through the door, waiting for it to close as she was bathed in a stream of hot air and some sort of decontamination chemical. When the fog cleared a second door hissed open.

Selene stepped through the portal with an economy of movement and grace borne of centuries of hard combat. A vampire sat at the back of the room, a fighter if she could tell by his alert demeanour, and also very young. His newness almost made him shine. He rose, as she approached, surprisingly devoid of the implements of a successful Death Dealer, instead he had an incongruously shiny stethoscope looped over his neck along with a small, gold caduceus on the lapel of his suit-coat. He bowed with a click of his heels and said with a slight German accent, "Selene, Daughter of Viktor, I assume. I'm Dr. Karl Gebhardt*. I captured these two. "

So, he had been a fighter in his previous existence, or at least a member of a society that valued men of violence. Selene vaguely recalled his name on a list of Nazi's executed for their crimes after the World War II. Her ability to identify a willingness to harm had never failed her. She wondered what skills this notorious butcher brought to Kraven's stable of lunatics.

Selene nodded curtly as she looked past the vampire to the two male figures in the glassed-in cell beyond him. One, the suspected Lycan, was strapped to a table, the standard array of silver nitrate spikes poised above it, ready to lower and inject the poison instantly if it attempted escape. Its sandy-brown hair was streaked with gray, and it bore countless scars on its bared torso, a fact that Selene found intriguing. Lycans, like all other immortals, possessed the ability to heal almost instantaneously and with little scarification. Yet Kraven had been quite sure this creature was one, thus prompting Selene's presence in this dismal corner of Hungary.

The Lycan's head was turned away from the viewing window and its was body still. For a moment, Selene wondered if it was already dead. It would be like these ghouls of Kraven's to summon her after interrogation was impossible. It had happened before. Though the creature was attached to several beeping, machines that appeared to monitor its life signs, Selene placed no faith in their truth. Instead, she watched the creature's chest closely and was satisfied that it lived as a jerking hitch of its diaphragm caused its chest to rise and fall shallowly. From the condition of the creature, she doubted she had much time to study it, especially since it did not seem to be healing at all.

The second male was tied, slumped in a chair, his oily black hair framing a face that could only charitably said to be interesting. His shirt and old-fashioned frock coat was open to the waist, his sleeves rolled up. He bore an odd, pulsing, green and black tattoo on his left arm. His condition was better than that of the Lycan, but not by much. Bruises and old, strangely shaped scars littered his sallow skin. A slow trickle of blood seeped from a bandaged wound on his upper chest. He'd had a rough life, whatever he was, this pet to the Lycan. She sensed a great deal of violence in the human, a quality she recognized quite readily. 

Selene drew closer to the one-way mirror that enclosed the cell, close enough that if she still breathed, it might have fogged the glass. She watched the two males without comment for a few moments, her centuries of existence lending her an air of patience that she did not feel. 

Finally she spoke, her attention never wavering from the study of the prisoners, "Tell me how your team captured them." 

The Nazi said after a brief hesitation, "My team didn't. I was working alone, in my lab one moment, and the next, there was a large-- Crack! -- And they appeared behind me. The Lycan was already badly injured and unconscious, but the human used some sort of strange, light-based weapon on me and... I was forced to subdue him, even after I shot him." At Selene's hiss of displeasure the Nazi added, "The tranquilizer should be wearing off shortly."

"Let me in the cell. I wish to examine them before they wake." She strode to the reinforced door expecting her command to be obeyed immediately. 

The Nazi loomed over her, "I'm sorry, that won't be... That is to say... I have my orders. The Lycan is... exceptional."

Without looking at the doctor, Selene shot her hand to his throat, her nail positioned over his carotid, poised to open the artery with a flick of her finger. "I expect immediate compliance, Doctor. I have my orders from Kraven himself."

&*&*&

Severus sat slumped in an attitude of unconsciousness while a new vampire, a female this time entered the room. His head throbbed from the drugs the male vampire had shot him with, his neck and shoulder ached from the projectile that had grazed him, and he had a rotten taste in his mouth. Other than those three anomalies, Severus seemed to be as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Trust Albus to risk Severus' own life for the worthless werewolf. Lupin had been the one to break his cover with the European wolf-pack, he had been the one to let them know how very unlike them he really was, and then fail to report to Albus just how embroiled in their own war these European wolves were. Lupin had been the careless one, yet Severus was sent, once again, into the mouth of hell to snatch a Gryffindor from his own folly. Typical.

Severus let his eyes slide to the new vampire as she examined the wolf. She was tiny, barely above 152 centimetres, with black hair and the marble-cold, time-hardened features of her entire race. She was dressed in black, Muggle military-style gear that included a ridiculous leather trench coat and unattractive combat boots. What lay between looked to be painted on her body in an obscene fashion. Snape thought he might be able to take her in a fight, but only if he had his wand, and that, sadly had been taken from him by the other vampire and was now very probably behind the centimetres-thick glass of his cell.

The female spoke, her slightly accented English soft and melodious, "What is your name, human?"

Severus feigned somnolence until the creature stood before him, moving more quickly than was natural. She pulled his face upwards with a brutal jerk of the hair at the nape of his neck. "Name, human."

Severus let his eyes open to slits. "Manners, Madam, are the hallmark of civil discourse. Perhaps you might introduce yourself first to elicit the response you require."

The creature's eyes flashed to an electrifying blue colour, and Severus noted, with some great trepidation, that her fangs descended. She gave him a feral smile, the expression reminding him startlingly of the Dark Lord with its cold calculation. With a flash of movement, she was at his throat, her teeth on his neck. Severus thought he might go mad with revulsion and stark terror as she tore away the bandage and drank from him. He tried to tune out the cowardly whimpers being ripped from him as his blood flowed out onto her tongue.

&*&*&

Blood memory was a tricky thing to accomplish with mortals, especially ones who were so tainted with the electric aura of magic that surrounded the one under her mouth. Selene had only tasted the blood of two such magicians in her entire existence, and both had left her feeling as if she had been poisoned. This one was no different, with the bitter copper taste of energy in his blood. She almost withdrew before the first image surfaced.

_Flashes of the Lycan, hunched over in agony, as it was moved by the magician out of a dark cell... The magician, much younger, hurtles down a tunnel, only to meet a fully transformed, yet alien, werewolf at the end... The magician writhes before a monster with red eyes and snake-like features... and another image before the same man begging for someone's life, someone who is important to him.. someone he loves beyond all reason... plans of revenge on the one who dared to harm her... hatred of the Lycan but duty pressed on him by an old man who hides behind a kindly facade but coldly controls his fate..._

_A mention of a cursed bite and a name... Greyback... A passing glance of the true monster, a human who claimed immortality without the benefit of true blood rising from the dead, his red eyes insolent in the darkness around him... ordering that very fate for many... the magician weeping tears that will never be seen, not if he can help it over the loss of a woman whose eyes are carried by her hated son... that boy at eleven, thirteen, fifteen... sullen faced...never knowing.. how much it cost the magician to protect him from the old man, the monster, and all those who would have him dead..._

_The magician in violent battle, his expression fierce, the blood singing in his veins...He enjoys inflicting death on those worthy of it, Selene can tell from his blissful expression... a haggard, dark-haired man with grey eyes... Black... and the Lycan... no, werewolf... Lupin... not the same as Lucian who killed her family, not the same as Selene's sworn enemies... cursed, not made by Corvinus' line... and the green-eyed boy, two other children with him... outraged as they fire their stick weapons at him..._

And then...

_there is a slip of a girl with the boy's green eyes and red-gold hair, flying in the bright air, landing gracefully on her feet... Selene feels his covetous elation as he watches..._

"No!" echoed through Selene's being as she was thrown back by a force, repelled by a surge of energy both dark and powerful. She stumbled against a cart that was filled with the Nazi's implements of torture. They clattered to the ground in a rain of silver noise. Selene righted herself, the bitter-copper taste of the blood in her mouth making her want to retch. 

She said with no forethought, "You are a warrior."

The magician stared at her, the sluggish flow of blood glistening on his white collar, trickling down to the unrelieved black of his old-fashioned coat. "I am a spy in the midst of a war of which your species has, as yet, no stake, Madam."

"We'd prefer to keep it that way." Making her decision, she moved towards the magician, slipping a knife down from her sleeve. "Mortals fight too often over transitory ideals which have no bearing on our world."

She raised the knife, slashing down through the bonds that held him   
with a precision born of long practice. 

To his credit, the magician didn't flinch, he merely raised an ironic brow, transforming his face from hard homeliness to a kind of interesting that held Selene's attention in a way that no mortal's had in centuries. They remained in their tableaux as the door to the cell swung open with a screech of metal on metal. 

"What are you doing?" the Nazi asked, his tone vacillating between querulous outrage and raw panic. "You may have your orders, _Death Dealer_ , but this is my lab. This creature and his human pet are important to my work."

The magician's dangerous, black gaze shifted from Selene to the doctor, a small smirk settling on his mouth, making a slight, incongruous dimple in his cheek. Without looking away from the magician, she threw the knife. It lodged in the Nazi's throat, an arterial spray of dark blood blooming as it cut through both his carotid and jugular. She finally allowed her attention to waver from the magician as she looked dispassionately on the Nazi's death throes. 

"I've always hated Kraven's sense of expedience." 

The magician began the process of untying the bonds that held the rest of his body with no comment on Selene's apparent non-sequitur. When he was finished, he raised his hand. The same coppery power that flowed through his veins arced around Selene. Two sticks flew from the Nazi's jacket to the magician's hand. He strode to his supine companion, studying the werewolf's bonds and the mechanisms of the silver nitrate delivery system. The burbling sound of exhaled blood from the Nazi's throat finally ceased as the magician raised one of the sticks. A flash of blue light had the assembled vials and needles crushed on the floor, another flash severed the bonds holding the werewolf down. 

Without the array of deadly weapons above the creature, the werewolf looked small, inconsequential. It was definitely no Lycan.

The magician began singing as he wove a net of almost palpable energy over the werewolf. Bruises began fading on its skin, flesh knit together, leaving empurpled scars that faded to white almost instantly. Finally, the magician took a shuddering breath, closing his eyes for a brief instant before he said, "Ennervate."

The creature coughed weakly and said, "Severus?"

"Silence, Lupin, before you undo the work I had to undertake to save your worthless hide." The magician's voice was harsh, his disdain of the creature apparent as he sneered the words. The creatures turned its gaze away from the magician with a pitiable sigh. In a few moments, it lapsed once again into sleep, this time a healing one, if Selene could tell from the depth of his respiration. 

"Madam." the magician, Severus apparently, began, "I have no doubt that you've put yourself in some danger by allowing us the liberty to leave."

It was Selene's turn to smirk. "I never said I'd let you leave."

Severus turned his full attention to her, sweeping her with a disdainful glare. A low, dry chuckle escaped her throat before she said, "I require payment, if you will."

"Of course, there always is a debt to be paid," she heard him mumble before he asked, "What would you have, then?"

Selene traversed the small area between them. "I bit you. That means you have been injected with whatever essence it is that makes me... what I am. You have not been turned... yet.

"I'm sure you know the risks you take in this war of yours. I'm also sure at some point you will die at the hands of one side or the other." When he made no noise to contradict her, she knew she had assessed his intelligence correctly. She continued, "When this happens, you will transform, you will become a vampire. I expect you to return to me and learn the ways of a Death Dealer. When I am satisfied that you are ready, you will employ that vast power you tap to aid our cause. Until then, you are free to play at whatever mortal games you wish."

The magician hissed, his lips drawn back from his yellowed teeth. "Fuck you."

"There will be none of that." Selene tutted mirthlessly, "I am your superior, after all."

The magician slammed his fist impotently down on the table holding the werewolf, near enough to the creature's that its head bounced, making a hollow, reverberating thud. "And if I refuse?"

"You won't." Selene answered. "You're my creature now. If I order it, which I have, you will comply."

The magician breathed deeply through that prodigious nose of his, the sound filling the room. Without warning, he lifted his stick, and raised the werewolf from the metal examination table. He made no comment as he drew the creature close to him. Only once he positioned the creature under his arm did he look at Selene fully. His expression was bleak as he took a swirling step, twisting both of them around. 

He and the werewolf were gone before she had time to blink.

**Author's Note:**

> Dr. Karl Gebhardt was a real Nazi doctor convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, and subsequently hanged. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please take the time to let me know what you think of the story.


End file.
